Don’t Repeat the COVID Mistake Smart People Win in Crises.

Right now, in 2026, everyone is holding their phone. Screen time is at record highs. Attention is abundant and available — and yet most businesses are pulling back their marketing spend out of fear. This creates one of the rarest conditions in marketing: a moment where the audience is fully present and the competition has gone quiet.

When competitors pause their ads, the cost per click drops. When competitors go silent on social media, the algorithm rewards those who stay consistent. When competitors stop reaching out to customers, those customers become available. A crisis doesn’t destroy the market — it empties the competition out of it temporarily. The business that keeps showing up during the quiet period earns the loyalty, the visibility, and the market share that takes years to build under normal conditions — in a matter of months.

This is one of the most concrete, measurable advantages a crisis creates for smart businesses. When fear spreads through the market and companies cut their advertising budgets, the auction-based ad platforms — Meta, Google, TikTok — respond with dramatically lower costs. The same audience that cost you 50 dirhams to reach last month might cost you 15 dirhams today.

During COVID, businesses that continued advertising reported some of the lowest CPMs and CPCs they had ever seen — while simultaneously seeing higher engagement rates because audiences had more time and attention to give. The same pattern is emerging now. Every dirham you spend on marketing during a period of competitive silence goes further, reaches more people, and builds more brand equity than the same dirham spent during a crowded, normal market.

The most important thing a business can do during a crisis is not pause — it is to study. The market is telling you something right now. Consumer behavior is shifting. Needs are changing. New pain points are emerging. The business that reads these signals accurately and adjusts its positioning accordingly does not just survive the crisis — it exits it in a completely different competitive position.

The businesses that thrived during COVID weren’t necessarily the biggest or best-funded. They were the most observant. They noticed that people wanted comfort, connection, and certainty — and they built their messaging around those needs. They noticed that remote work created a massive demand for productivity tools, home equipment, and digital services — and they pivoted before the mainstream caught up. Reading the market in real time, while your competitors are paralyzed by uncertainty, is one of the most powerful competitive advantages that exists.

Shopify didn’t just survive COVID — it became one of the most important platforms in e-commerce history because millions of businesses suddenly needed to sell online and Shopify was ready. Notion exploded during COVID because remote teams needed a better way to organize and collaborate. Zoom became a household name overnight. These weren’t lucky accidents — they were businesses that were positioned correctly when the moment arrived.

The brands that emerged from COVID stronger didn’t get lucky — they seized a moment that most businesses were too afraid to recognize as an opportunity. They understood that when the market is in pain, the business that offers the most relevant solution wins disproportionately. They moved when others froze. They invested when others cut. They built when others paused. And when the dust settled, they owned a position in the market that their frozen competitors could never catch up to.

This is the most underestimated cost of pausing during a crisis. It’s not what you lose today — it’s what you have to rebuild tomorrow. Momentum in business and marketing is one of the hardest things to build and one of the easiest things to destroy. When you go quiet for three months, your audience forgets you. Your algorithm rankings drop. Your team loses rhythm. Your pipeline dries up.

The businesses that stopped during COVID and restarted after found themselves in a brutal position: trying to rebuild an audience, restart their pipeline, and compete in a market that had moved on without them — while their competitors who stayed active had already locked in the loyalty, the rankings, and the market position. The market doesn’t pause for you to feel ready. It moves forward whether you’re on it or not. The only question is whether you’re moving with it.

Not every offer survives a crisis equally. Luxury and discretionary spending contracts. But certain categories not only survive — they thrive. In times of uncertainty, people and businesses invest heavily in things that help them navigate, adapt, and keep operating. This is exactly where your positioning should be right now.

The businesses that thrive in every crisis share one positioning trait: they are essential. They are not nice-to-have — they are need-to-have. If your current offer feels discretionary, this is the moment to reframe, reposition, or add a crisis-relevant layer to your product or service. Ask yourself: what does my customer absolutely need right now to keep moving forward? Build that, sell that, and market that with clarity and conviction.